July 29, 2025 • 24 mins
How Morning Routines Improve Productivity is something many successful people understand well. In this episode, we explore why having a morning routine can transform your entire day, boost your focus, and increase your confidence.
Learn simple, realistic morning rituals you can start today to feel organised, calm, and motivated. Whether it’s quiet reflection, stretching, or planning your day with intention, these small habits can make a big difference to your mental health and productivity.
Learn more about booking a nutrition consultation with Fiona: https://informedhealth.com.au/
Learn more about Fiona's speaking and media services: https://fionakane.com.au/
Sign up to receive our newsletter by clicking here.
Instagram
Facebook
LinkedIn
Credit for the music used in this podcast:
The Beat of Nature
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Fiona Kane (00:00):
Hello and welcome to the Wellness Connection.
I'm your host, Fiona Kane.
This is a podcast where I liketo have real conversations about
things that matter, and today Iwant to talk to you about
morning routines, morningrituals, and this is a
conversation I was having.
I have a house guest here todayI won't name the person, but
anyway I had a house gueststaying and I said I need to
(00:22):
record some podcasts today.
Have you got some ideas forsome topics?
And this person brought upmorning rituals and what a
difference that has made intheir life.
And I see this a lot for peoplethat when you have a really
good morning ritual, it reallyhelps with your mental health
and your physical health.
And when you think about it,this happens for a few reasons.
(00:45):
So a morning ritual, morningroutine first of all, there's
something very intentional aboutit.
So instead of, oh well, I'll dowhat I remember, if I remember
when it happens, whatever.
So instead of this vague kindof thing where you forget things
and you don't prioritize thingsand you kind of suddenly run
out of time, you know that kindof thing, you're very
(01:06):
intentional.
You're very intentional aboutwhat are the things that I need
to do today that are going to bebeneficial for me and because
you're very intentional, youtend to do those things, or you
at least do some of those things, or you at least do one thing
that's really intentionallyimportant and valid and that's
(01:26):
going to contribute to yourwell-being in some way.
And not only that, but I havetalked about this before.
But when we do things, so whenwe feel like we've achieved
something, you're able to ticksomething from your list, you
feel good about yourself and yousee this.
An example I'll give is youknow the old saying that when
(01:48):
you want to get something done,you give it to someone who's
really busy, because someonewho's really busy already has
momentum, they're already moving, they're already doing
something right.
So that person will just slotit into their list of things to
do and they'll probably get itdone.
Whereas if you I don't know ifyou've ever when you've been on
holidays or in holiday mode or asituation maybe where you're
recovering from your illness orsomething, but when you are you
(02:11):
don't have anything to do right?
When you don't have anything todo and there's one thing you've
got to get done, that day, itcould be the simplest of things
I've just got to send one emailor I've got to I don't know just
one small thing.
Have you noticed that you can'tfigure out where to fit it in
the day and you end up not evengetting around to doing it Like,
oh no, I didn't get time to dothe thing right and you had
(02:32):
plenty of time, you had thewhole day.
But there's something about youget momentum from when starting
.
So when you start, when you dosomething, when you do something
intentional and when you dosomething intentional, that
makes you feel good aboutyourself.
So it's that thing I've talkedabout before as well of when you
know you have your back right.
So you trust someone who showsup for you.
(02:54):
It's the same for you yourself.
So with other people in yourlife, you trust the person who
shows up for you, the person whoshows up for you, the person
who's there for you.
They're the one that you buildtrust with.
Well, it's the same for us withourselves.
So if we never show up forourselves, we actually don't
have trust for ourselves and wedon't expect to be showing up
(03:15):
for ourselves.
We don't expect ourselves toback ourselves.
So you develop like a distrustfor yourself.
I'm never going to achieve thatthing because I don't show up
for me, right.
So when you do show up foryourself, that actually makes
you feel really good aboutyourself and much more confident
, because now you're provingthat you are a person who shows
(03:38):
up for you and so one you've gotthat kind of feeling good about
.
You know, I've showed up formyself, I do show up for myself,
I'm that person.
I'm the person who shows up formyself, not the person who
doesn't show up and look aftermyself.
But then next thing, what Isaid is you know you get
momentum from that right.
So momentum starts to happenwhen you actually just get
(04:01):
started and you do something.
So and that's without eventalking about the specific
things in the ritual that youmight be doing and the benefits
they will have for you.
So morning rituals might includea number of things.
They might be sitting andhaving a cup of tea for 15, 20
minutes before the family wakesup and just having some quiet
time to be in your own space, inyour own head.
(04:23):
It might be a time where youwrite a gratitude diary, you
have some sort of gratitudepractice, you might be doing a
meditation or some sort ofprayer or ritual, something
along those lines.
You might be doing exercise, sosort of.
One of the popular morningrituals is anything that
involves sweating and movingyour body, which is a really
good way to start the day, youknow.
(04:44):
So you might be sitting down,like I said, maybe just thinking
about what your day is going tolook like, thinking about
what's ahead.
You might be making a list orjust like in your head, kind of
just clearing things up andgetting clear about what you
want to do for that day.
Maybe you're doing some yoga orsome stretches or something.
Take the dog for a walk, patthe dog with a cup of tea,
(05:06):
whatever it looks like.
But morning rituals are reallyreally beneficial for our health
and when you think about whatsome of those things are, you
get something where you getclarity about the day, something
where you have some space inyour mind that is just for you
and not about all of the noisefrom outside.
So, and then you know when wetalk about, you know, things
(05:32):
like the ritual of makingyourself a healthy breakfast or
doing exercise, those sorts ofthings.
Obviously all of those thingswill matter.
You know you get protein tostart the day.
You know you'll have, you know,plenty of.
You'll have consistent energyand manage your blood sugar
level well, and you know you'llhave you know plenty of, you'll
have consistent energy andmanage your blood sugar level
well, and you know you'll goreally well If you know when
you're exercising, again, youget, you use energy when you
(05:53):
exercise, but you get energyfrom exercise as well and again
you feel good about yourself.
All that circulation, all thosehealth benefits that we get
from doing exercise, you know.
So all of those, you know theactual things you're doing,
themselves are beneficial,besides the fact that you feel
good about the fact that youhave done them.
But also you've done something,you've gotten started, you've
(06:14):
already, you know you've alreadydone.
If you've already done three,four, five things before you
even sort of start work or startheading to work or whatever
your day looks like, there is,like I said, you've already got
a real momentum there and you'refeeling good and you're feeling
good about yourself and thatmakes all of the difference.
So there is something aboutbeing really intentional with
(06:37):
the way we structure ourmornings.
That's really important, youknow.
The other aspect of this as wellis, you know, I suppose on the
other side of things with themorning rituals is some morning
rituals that people have and Iknow that I can easily fall into
this, so I'm not saying this tohave a go at anyone but a very
(06:58):
common morning ritual is thefirst thing you do is pick up
your phone and you're checkingsocial media, or you're looking
at the news or something.
But what you're doing straightaway, when you're doing that and
we've all been guilty of it,again, no judgment but what
you're doing is, straight away,you're picking up this thing and
you're letting that go todecide how your day, how your
(07:18):
morning's going to start.
So that is going to control howthings start, because straight
away, you've got somethingyou've got to reply to, or
you're seeing the news and youknow often it's quite depressing
, right or you're on socialmedia doing some doom scrolling,
looking at someone who you know, someone who makes you feel bad
about yourself or someone,whatever it is, you know.
(07:39):
But what we do is when we, whenwe jump on our phones straight
away, we're letting that controlhow our day begins, and
whatever happens to be on ourphone at the time, we'll decide
how our day starts, and it couldbe, you know, a message from
someone as oh yeah, I've got todo a thing and so you start the
day already feeling like, youknow, feeling bad, that you
(08:02):
haven't done something yet orthat someone's after you or
someone needs something, orthere's an email I've got to
reply to.
Oh, that's right.
So you kind of start the daystraight away with.
It dictates how your day begins.
It dictates whether or not youstart your day in a positive
mood or a negative mood, orstraight away feeling like
stressed and feeling under thepump, right.
(08:23):
So there's also morning ritualsthat are not beneficial.
So morning rituals where you'lljust jump straight on your
phone or where you jump straightin front of the television, I
would say to most people it'snot a good idea to do that.
If you're sort of person whoyou know likes watching 15
minutes of a morning show with abit of news, and you do that
(08:45):
with your breakfast everymorning, that's your ritual and
it works quite well for you andyou know you feel good about it,
great.
But if you're the sort ofperson that lands in front of
television, has trouble movingaway from it or then says, oh, I
don't know where the day went,I didn't get time to do anything
, not a good idea.
Don't go there, just don't evenstart there.
If that's what it's like foryou, right, and it could also be
(09:06):
playing a really good podcastthat you like as well.
That might be part of how youstart your morning, or reading a
little bit of a book.
Now, I'm not saying thateveryone has to do all of these
things, and, of course, there'sa lot of influencers and
podcasters and people in thehealth space out there who do
all sorts of things wherethey're doing, you know, they do
the cold plunge in the morning,or they're doing the, the cold
(09:27):
plunge and then the sauna, andthen they do the workout and
this and that and the coldplunge, and it looks fabulous
and that's great, and, again,there's nothing wrong with that.
There's some people who dothose kinds of things, who get
amazing results from them, sothat's fabulous.
But what I would say to you,though, is don't get turned off
(09:48):
by the fact that, like, ifthat's just not within your
wheelhouse, that just doesn't,is not possible for you.
It's just, you know, we've allgot different situations and
different jobs and differentresponsibilities, and maybe you
don't have that much time andthat much availability to do
those kinds of things, but whatit comes down to is, though well
, what does a good morningritual look like for you, and it
might be different at differenttimes.
(10:09):
So there might be the ritualyou do on the day that your kids
go to school, the ritual you doon the day that they're at home
, you know the ritual you do onthis day, that work day,
non-work day, whatever it is.
So you might have slightlydifferent rituals for different
days, but you just havesomething that's for you.
So it might even just be fiveminutes to have a cup of tea.
You know, I would say probablybe better if it's more than five
(10:30):
minutes, but if you're able towake up before your children do.
I know a lot of mothers give mefeedback that you know it's
actually worth them setting thealarm a little bit earlier and
just sneaking out and justquietly sitting and having their
cuppa before the kids andeveryone else is sort of on them
for something and that justgives them that little bit of
sanity.
So you may be doing, you know,the workout and the green
(10:53):
smoothie and the, the coldplunge and the sauna and the all
the one, yoga and all thewonderful things are good on you
and if you're able to do thatand your life and your finances
and your time allows for that,that's brilliant.
If you're not able to do all ofthose things, but you are able
just to sit and be mindful, youare able to write a gratitude
(11:15):
journal, you are able to maybejust do a five-minute meditation
.
Whatever it is, so don't getoverwhelmed by the fact that it
has to look a certain way or beperfect, or it has to be the
same as the one that you heardyour favorite influencer do on
Instagram, or whatever.
It has to be the one that worksfor you, the one that's
(11:35):
possible for you, the one thatyou can do.
But what I do encourage, though,is that you do have morning
rituals, because when you dohave them, they really set you
off to a good start every day.
And there is something as wellwhen your morning ritual
includes any level of eithermeditation or gratitude or kind
(11:57):
of just that presence.
But you know being present andbeing aware, the health benefits
, the mental health benefitsfrom that.
I can't tell you enough whatthey are, because, again, if you
kind of just jump into your dayand you kind of just end up in
your day and you're kind of justthere and you haven't even got
(12:19):
your head straight.
What happens again is the daydictates what, what your, how
you feel.
The day dictates it all becausestraight away you're just
running here or there andeverywhere, kind of just like
answering everybody and catchingup and trying to chase your
tail, kind of thing.
When you have a moment to dosomething, that's sort of really
good for your headspace, thatreally can change the way you
(12:42):
start your day.
So if you start your day andyou are able to, maybe you're
somewhere where you can lookoutside and you can see flowers
or trees, maybe you can pat yourdog or your cat or whatever.
Maybe you can, you know, evenjust go into, you know, your
child's bedroom and look at yourchild while they're still
asleep, while they're still anangel, and kind of just have an
(13:03):
appreciation for how lucky youare to be their parent.
Right, it could be just beinghaving gratitude that you can
see, that you can hear, thatyou're able to eat, you're able
to walk, you're able to function, you're alive, right, so
whatever it looks like, but allthat you know able to have a hot
shower and you've got hot water, aren't you lucky, you know?
So just anything where you'reable to be present, you're able
(13:26):
to be present with yoursurroundings, so not kind of
caught up in what happened inthe past or what's happening,
but just be really present withnow, have a level of gratitude
and awareness about the goodthings that you have available
to you or the resources you haveavailable to you.
When we kind of have thoselevels of awareness, that really
can kind of you start your dayin a way where you're already
(13:50):
feeling gratitude and you'realready feeling lucky, like I am
so lucky that you know I canwalk and talk and I can move and
or I said move, but whateverwalk, move, you know I can, I
I'm able to eat.
It's not until if you've beenin a situation where you can't
eat, you know how valuable it isto be able to eat.
And I was able to sleep, I hada bed last night and I was warm
(14:12):
last night, all of those things.
If you have got all of thosethings going for you already
well, you're doing better than awhole lot of other people,
right?
So if we can start the day inthat space where we can really
see all the things we've gotgoing for us, all the things
that are going well, all thethings that we're lucky about
and all the things that arebeautiful.
So, like I said, the dog, thebirds outside the trees,
(14:35):
whatever it is, but justnoticing the things that are
true and beautiful and that aresort of any type of sort of
blessing in your life.
When we are able to integrate apractice where we notice those
things, then whatever happensthroughout the day, you know, I
(14:56):
think you can cope betterbecause you didn't go launch
right into it.
You actually were able to justhave that moment of no, I'm okay
.
I'm okay, I've got resources,I've got what I need, I'm okay,
I'll be all right.
And even in regards to some ofthose morning rituals that like
say, I think Joe Rogan, I likeJoe Rogan, so no problem there,
(15:18):
but I think he does like thecold plunge every morning in the
workout and et cetera.
And what he says, which I findis quite interesting, is he says
that and this is actually, Ithink, particularly important
for people who are really reallycomfortable so he's really
really quite wealthy and a lotof people who've got to a place
where they're really quitewealthy and powerful he says
(15:39):
that you know it, actually youdo the hardest thing in the day
first.
So it is forcing him to dosomething hard, because when
you're not sort of in the streettrying to like living on the
street or when you're not sortof busting it trying to make a
living and all those things, andyou finally got to a place
where you're really comfortableand you're kind of on top of
your game, uh, it would be veryeasy to kind of relax into that
(15:59):
and just kind of indulge.
And instead of doing that hesays no, no, I do something hard
every day because it provesthat I can still do something
hard but also everything afterthat is easy because I've done
the hard thing.
So he actually part of hismorning ritual is doing
something that's hard, so thatafter that everything seems easy
(16:19):
.
So see sort of the mindsetbehind that.
So it says different ways wecan do a morning ritual that
might work differently fordifferent people.
We need different things.
So what he does that works forhim may not be what works for a
young mom or a post-menopausalwoman or whoever right, there's
different reasons why differentrituals work for us.
(16:42):
But the idea is to really haveintentionality behind it and
kind of understand what you'redoing and what you're doing it
for, and understand that youdon't necessarily need hours
right, because most people don'thave hours for all their
rituals in the morning.
You might have minutes, youmight have an hour, you might
have 20 minutes, you might havesix minutes, I don't know what
it is.
So work out what it is that'smost beneficial for you and do
(17:05):
that in that time.
And it might be doing one thing, might be doing two different
things, but don't sort of not doit because you don't have time,
because you can create.
Most people can create fiveminutes.
Most people can find fiveminutes somewhere.
They stop doing something else.
You know, if you weren't doingthe doom scrolling on your phone
, how much time do you spenddoom scrolling?
(17:26):
If you can have time to doomscroll, well then you can have
time to do.
You know a two minutemeditation, right?
So that's the other thing too.
It's like everyone's only gotthe same amount of hours in the
day.
So it's like, what do you dowith yours?
And it might be very minimal,absolutely, but there's still a
lot you can do in a small amountof time.
So, um, and when you do, I knowI always enjoyed reading a lot
(17:50):
of biographies andautobiographies and you know, as
someone who's been in businessfor a long time.
I've read a lot of businessbooks, and when you read
business books andautobiographies or anything
where people have becomesuccessful in whatever they do,
more often than not these peoplehave a lot of very specific
rituals, and they usually havemorning rituals, and this is the
exact reason why.
(18:11):
So you do the thing that youneed to do to keep you
functional, to keep you well, togive you energy throughout the
day.
You do the thing that startsyou with momentum.
You do the thing that startsyou in that right headspace.
So you're going into the dayreally intentionally and you
don't let something like a phoneor your emails or your social
media dictate how you feel tostart the day.
(18:34):
You're starting the day in a,you know, in a shock, or in a or
in a, you know, feeling alreadystressed and feeling already
behind or already like you'vegot to run around and do
everything for everybody else.
So there is very much somethingto be said for having a great
morning ritual and you candevise what that looks like for
(18:54):
you, depending on time, money,whatever your situation is,
whatever your needs are.
But you will find that when youregularly show up for yourself,
whether that's for two minutesa day or whether this is a
two-hour ritual every day,whatever that might look like
for you, it makes a really bigdifference to what your day
looks like, what your physicaland mental health looks like.
(19:17):
The fact that you start toreally trust yourself because
you know that you show up foryourself and you might find it
makes a difference with yourproductivity and all the other
things you do and your abilityto be present with other people.
Sometimes, to be present withother people and to be there for
other people and to hold aspace for other people.
We need to do something thatgives us space as well, and some
(19:41):
people have an evening ritual,and that can be great too, or
some people have one or theother, or they have both, and
the other thing I would just sayto you is to have a healthy
morning ritual.
One of the things I see a lot isI see and again, no judgment
for human beings, but I see alot of people that say, oh well,
you know like I'm busy all daywith the kids and with everybody
(20:03):
else and I get to a certaintime in the night and I want
time for myself, which is fairenough, and so you know I sit
down and start watching telly,but before I know it I'm, you
know I'm on binge watching thelatest, whatever it is, and I'm
you know four or five episodesin it's two in the morning.
I go to bed at two in themorning and then I wake up tired
.
You know, obviously that's nota good idea.
(20:24):
So, yes, I understand why youmight want to binge watch the
thing and I love that sort ofstuff just as much as the next
person, and sometimes thatreally is a medicine for me just
to go and disappear and bingewatch something.
Right, I understand that.
But I would just encourage youto again be intentional around
it.
So you might say I can watchone episode tonight and I'll
(20:47):
keep the other episode fortomorrow night.
Or, you know, it might be oneepisode a week that you get to
watch, or it might be you have acouple of hours on the weekend
where you get to binge watch alittle bit.
Whatever it is.
But you know, make life easierfor yourself by you know putting
sensible boundaries on thosesorts of things for you, Because
if it was your child sitting uptill two in the morning binge
(21:10):
watching something and you knewthey had to get up at six
o'clock in the morning to go towork.
You'd go to school, whatever itis.
Of course you would say to thatperson hey, that's not a good
idea, but we will do this, wewill do that for ourselves.
So also sort of think aboutwhat your evenings look like,
because what your evenings looklike will make a big difference
to your morning, won't they?
Because if your evenings looklike getting to bed really
(21:34):
really late because you've juststayed up watching telly all
night or playing games orwhatever it is, obviously that's
not a good thing.
So it is really useful to havean evening ritual as well.
And even if the evening ritualis just making sure that you
know on weekdays you're alwaysin bed by this time on weekends,
whatever that time, and youalways sort of have a quiet time
(21:54):
before bed, whatever it is.
But sometimes it's the reasonthat we're not having a
successful morning ritual isbecause our evening ritual is no
good or our evening is withoutritual.
The ritual is just on thelounge with the chocolate.
Yes, I know that some of yourecognize that, as do I.
When I said that, you thoughtoh, that's me, and it's
(22:19):
certainly me sometimes as well.
So just pointing out thatsometimes we are the ones that
sabotage ourselves, and when weare really intentional with what
we do with our time, we canfeel a whole lot better for it
and have a lot more physical andemotional health success for it
as well.
So, before I go, I would justplease like to remind you to
(22:42):
like, subscribe, share, commentand please rate and review this
podcast and please do share itwith your friends.
It is really, you know, Ireally want to keep this podcast
going and it is building slowlybut very slowly.
So please, please, please, ifthere's this one person now that
you can just quickly hit theshare button and share this with
(23:02):
your friend or on your Facebookor whatever it is, or just go
in and press the subscribebutton, something like that, all
of those things make adifference with how many people
get to see and hear this podcast.
So I really appreciate yoursupport.
I hope you have a great week.
I'll talk to you next weekabout more about things that you
(23:23):
know, real conversations aboutthings that matter.
Thank you, I'll talk to younext week.
Bye.
Hello and welcome to the Wellness Connection.
I'm your host, Fiona Kane.
This is a podcast where I liketo have real conversations about
things that matter, and today Iwant to talk to you about
morning routines, morningrituals, and this is a
conversation I was having.
I have a house guest here todayI won't name the person, but
anyway I had a house gueststaying and I said I need to
(00:22):
record some podcasts today.
Have you got some ideas forsome topics?
And this person brought upmorning rituals and what a
difference that has made intheir life.
And I see this a lot for peoplethat when you have a really
good morning ritual, it reallyhelps with your mental health
and your physical health.
And when you think about it,this happens for a few reasons.
(00:45):
So a morning ritual, morningroutine first of all, there's
something very intentional aboutit.
So instead of, oh well, I'll dowhat I remember, if I remember
when it happens, whatever.
So instead of this vague kindof thing where you forget things
and you don't prioritize thingsand you kind of suddenly run
out of time, you know that kindof thing, you're very
(01:06):
intentional.
You're very intentional aboutwhat are the things that I need
to do today that are going to bebeneficial for me and because
you're very intentional, youtend to do those things, or you
at least do some of those things, or you at least do one thing
that's really intentionallyimportant and valid and that's
(01:26):
going to contribute to yourwell-being in some way.
And not only that, but I havetalked about this before.
But when we do things, so whenwe feel like we've achieved
something, you're able to ticksomething from your list, you
feel good about yourself and yousee this.
An example I'll give is youknow the old saying that when
(01:48):
you want to get something done,you give it to someone who's
really busy, because someonewho's really busy already has
momentum, they're already moving, they're already doing
something right.
So that person will just slotit into their list of things to
do and they'll probably get itdone.
Whereas if you I don't know ifyou've ever when you've been on
holidays or in holiday mode or asituation maybe where you're
recovering from your illness orsomething, but when you are you
(02:11):
don't have anything to do right?
When you don't have anything todo and there's one thing you've
got to get done, that day, itcould be the simplest of things
I've just got to send one emailor I've got to I don't know just
one small thing.
Have you noticed that you can'tfigure out where to fit it in
the day and you end up not evengetting around to doing it Like,
oh no, I didn't get time to dothe thing right and you had
(02:32):
plenty of time, you had thewhole day.
But there's something about youget momentum from when starting
.
So when you start, when you dosomething, when you do something
intentional and when you dosomething intentional, that
makes you feel good aboutyourself.
So it's that thing I've talkedabout before as well of when you
know you have your back right.
So you trust someone who showsup for you.
(02:54):
It's the same for you yourself.
So with other people in yourlife, you trust the person who
shows up for you, the person whoshows up for you, the person
who's there for you.
They're the one that you buildtrust with.
Well, it's the same for us withourselves.
So if we never show up forourselves, we actually don't
have trust for ourselves and wedon't expect to be showing up
(03:15):
for ourselves.
We don't expect ourselves toback ourselves.
So you develop like a distrustfor yourself.
I'm never going to achieve thatthing because I don't show up
for me, right.
So when you do show up foryourself, that actually makes
you feel really good aboutyourself and much more confident
, because now you're provingthat you are a person who shows
(03:38):
up for you and so one you've gotthat kind of feeling good about
.
You know, I've showed up formyself, I do show up for myself,
I'm that person.
I'm the person who shows up formyself, not the person who
doesn't show up and look aftermyself.
But then next thing, what Isaid is you know you get
momentum from that right.
So momentum starts to happenwhen you actually just get
(04:01):
started and you do something.
So and that's without eventalking about the specific
things in the ritual that youmight be doing and the benefits
they will have for you.
So morning rituals might includea number of things.
They might be sitting andhaving a cup of tea for 15, 20
minutes before the family wakesup and just having some quiet
time to be in your own space, inyour own head.
(04:23):
It might be a time where youwrite a gratitude diary, you
have some sort of gratitudepractice, you might be doing a
meditation or some sort ofprayer or ritual, something
along those lines.
You might be doing exercise, sosort of.
One of the popular morningrituals is anything that
involves sweating and movingyour body, which is a really
good way to start the day, youknow.
(04:44):
So you might be sitting down,like I said, maybe just thinking
about what your day is going tolook like, thinking about
what's ahead.
You might be making a list orjust like in your head, kind of
just clearing things up andgetting clear about what you
want to do for that day.
Maybe you're doing some yoga orsome stretches or something.
Take the dog for a walk, patthe dog with a cup of tea,
(05:06):
whatever it looks like.
But morning rituals are reallyreally beneficial for our health
and when you think about whatsome of those things are, you
get something where you getclarity about the day, something
where you have some space inyour mind that is just for you
and not about all of the noisefrom outside.
So, and then you know when wetalk about, you know, things
(05:32):
like the ritual of makingyourself a healthy breakfast or
doing exercise, those sorts ofthings.
Obviously all of those thingswill matter.
You know you get protein tostart the day.
You know you'll have, you know,plenty of.
You'll have consistent energyand manage your blood sugar
level well, and you know you'llhave you know plenty of, you'll
have consistent energy andmanage your blood sugar level
well, and you know you'll goreally well If you know when
you're exercising, again, youget, you use energy when you
(05:53):
exercise, but you get energyfrom exercise as well and again
you feel good about yourself.
All that circulation, all thosehealth benefits that we get
from doing exercise, you know.
So all of those, you know theactual things you're doing,
themselves are beneficial,besides the fact that you feel
good about the fact that youhave done them.
But also you've done something,you've gotten started, you've
(06:14):
already, you know you've alreadydone.
If you've already done three,four, five things before you
even sort of start work or startheading to work or whatever
your day looks like, there is,like I said, you've already got
a real momentum there and you'refeeling good and you're feeling
good about yourself and thatmakes all of the difference.
So there is something aboutbeing really intentional with
(06:37):
the way we structure ourmornings.
That's really important, youknow.
The other aspect of this as wellis, you know, I suppose on the
other side of things with themorning rituals is some morning
rituals that people have and Iknow that I can easily fall into
this, so I'm not saying this tohave a go at anyone but a very
(06:58):
common morning ritual is thefirst thing you do is pick up
your phone and you're checkingsocial media, or you're looking
at the news or something.
But what you're doing straightaway, when you're doing that and
we've all been guilty of it,again, no judgment but what
you're doing is, straight away,you're picking up this thing and
you're letting that go todecide how your day, how your
(07:18):
morning's going to start.
So that is going to control howthings start, because straight
away, you've got somethingyou've got to reply to, or
you're seeing the news and youknow often it's quite depressing
, right or you're on socialmedia doing some doom scrolling,
looking at someone who you know, someone who makes you feel bad
about yourself or someone,whatever it is, you know.
(07:39):
But what we do is when we, whenwe jump on our phones straight
away, we're letting that controlhow our day begins, and
whatever happens to be on ourphone at the time, we'll decide
how our day starts, and it couldbe, you know, a message from
someone as oh yeah, I've got todo a thing and so you start the
day already feeling like, youknow, feeling bad, that you
(08:02):
haven't done something yet orthat someone's after you or
someone needs something, orthere's an email I've got to
reply to.
Oh, that's right.
So you kind of start the daystraight away with.
It dictates how your day begins.
It dictates whether or not youstart your day in a positive
mood or a negative mood, orstraight away feeling like
stressed and feeling under thepump, right.
(08:23):
So there's also morning ritualsthat are not beneficial.
So morning rituals where you'lljust jump straight on your
phone or where you jump straightin front of the television, I
would say to most people it'snot a good idea to do that.
If you're sort of person whoyou know likes watching 15
minutes of a morning show with abit of news, and you do that
(08:45):
with your breakfast everymorning, that's your ritual and
it works quite well for you andyou know you feel good about it,
great.
But if you're the sort ofperson that lands in front of
television, has trouble movingaway from it or then says, oh, I
don't know where the day went,I didn't get time to do anything
, not a good idea.
Don't go there, just don't evenstart there.
If that's what it's like foryou, right, and it could also be
(09:06):
playing a really good podcastthat you like as well.
That might be part of how youstart your morning, or reading a
little bit of a book.
Now, I'm not saying thateveryone has to do all of these
things, and, of course, there'sa lot of influencers and
podcasters and people in thehealth space out there who do
all sorts of things wherethey're doing, you know, they do
the cold plunge in the morning,or they're doing the, the cold
(09:27):
plunge and then the sauna, andthen they do the workout and
this and that and the coldplunge, and it looks fabulous
and that's great, and, again,there's nothing wrong with that.
There's some people who dothose kinds of things, who get
amazing results from them, sothat's fabulous.
But what I would say to you,though, is don't get turned off
(09:48):
by the fact that, like, ifthat's just not within your
wheelhouse, that just doesn't,is not possible for you.
It's just, you know, we've allgot different situations and
different jobs and differentresponsibilities, and maybe you
don't have that much time andthat much availability to do
those kinds of things, but whatit comes down to is, though well
, what does a good morningritual look like for you, and it
might be different at differenttimes.
(10:09):
So there might be the ritualyou do on the day that your kids
go to school, the ritual you doon the day that they're at home
, you know the ritual you do onthis day, that work day,
non-work day, whatever it is.
So you might have slightlydifferent rituals for different
days, but you just havesomething that's for you.
So it might even just be fiveminutes to have a cup of tea.
You know, I would say probablybe better if it's more than five
(10:30):
minutes, but if you're able towake up before your children do.
I know a lot of mothers give mefeedback that you know it's
actually worth them setting thealarm a little bit earlier and
just sneaking out and justquietly sitting and having their
cuppa before the kids andeveryone else is sort of on them
for something and that justgives them that little bit of
sanity.
So you may be doing, you know,the workout and the green
(10:53):
smoothie and the, the coldplunge and the sauna and the all
the one, yoga and all thewonderful things are good on you
and if you're able to do thatand your life and your finances
and your time allows for that,that's brilliant.
If you're not able to do all ofthose things, but you are able
just to sit and be mindful, youare able to write a gratitude
(11:15):
journal, you are able to maybejust do a five-minute meditation
.
Whatever it is, so don't getoverwhelmed by the fact that it
has to look a certain way or beperfect, or it has to be the
same as the one that you heardyour favorite influencer do on
Instagram, or whatever.
It has to be the one that worksfor you, the one that's
(11:35):
possible for you, the one thatyou can do.
But what I do encourage, though,is that you do have morning
rituals, because when you dohave them, they really set you
off to a good start every day.
And there is something as wellwhen your morning ritual
includes any level of eithermeditation or gratitude or kind
(11:57):
of just that presence.
But you know being present andbeing aware, the health benefits
, the mental health benefitsfrom that.
I can't tell you enough whatthey are, because, again, if you
kind of just jump into your dayand you kind of just end up in
your day and you're kind of justthere and you haven't even got
(12:19):
your head straight.
What happens again is the daydictates what, what your, how
you feel.
The day dictates it all becausestraight away you're just
running here or there andeverywhere, kind of just like
answering everybody and catchingup and trying to chase your
tail, kind of thing.
When you have a moment to dosomething, that's sort of really
good for your headspace, thatreally can change the way you
(12:42):
start your day.
So if you start your day andyou are able to, maybe you're
somewhere where you can lookoutside and you can see flowers
or trees, maybe you can pat yourdog or your cat or whatever.
Maybe you can, you know, evenjust go into, you know, your
child's bedroom and look at yourchild while they're still
asleep, while they're still anangel, and kind of just have an
(13:03):
appreciation for how lucky youare to be their parent.
Right, it could be just beinghaving gratitude that you can
see, that you can hear, thatyou're able to eat, you're able
to walk, you're able to function, you're alive, right, so
whatever it looks like, but allthat you know able to have a hot
shower and you've got hot water, aren't you lucky, you know?
So just anything where you'reable to be present, you're able
(13:26):
to be present with yoursurroundings, so not kind of
caught up in what happened inthe past or what's happening,
but just be really present withnow, have a level of gratitude
and awareness about the goodthings that you have available
to you or the resources you haveavailable to you.
When we kind of have thoselevels of awareness, that really
can kind of you start your dayin a way where you're already
(13:50):
feeling gratitude and you'realready feeling lucky, like I am
so lucky that you know I canwalk and talk and I can move and
or I said move, but whateverwalk, move, you know I can, I
I'm able to eat.
It's not until if you've beenin a situation where you can't
eat, you know how valuable it isto be able to eat.
And I was able to sleep, I hada bed last night and I was warm
(14:12):
last night, all of those things.
If you have got all of thosethings going for you already
well, you're doing better than awhole lot of other people,
right?
So if we can start the day inthat space where we can really
see all the things we've gotgoing for us, all the things
that are going well, all thethings that we're lucky about
and all the things that arebeautiful.
So, like I said, the dog, thebirds outside the trees,
(14:35):
whatever it is, but justnoticing the things that are
true and beautiful and that aresort of any type of sort of
blessing in your life.
When we are able to integrate apractice where we notice those
things, then whatever happensthroughout the day, you know, I
(14:56):
think you can cope betterbecause you didn't go launch
right into it.
You actually were able to justhave that moment of no, I'm okay
.
I'm okay, I've got resources,I've got what I need, I'm okay,
I'll be all right.
And even in regards to some ofthose morning rituals that like
say, I think Joe Rogan, I likeJoe Rogan, so no problem there,
(15:18):
but I think he does like thecold plunge every morning in the
workout and et cetera.
And what he says, which I findis quite interesting, is he says
that and this is actually, Ithink, particularly important
for people who are really reallycomfortable so he's really
really quite wealthy and a lotof people who've got to a place
where they're really quitewealthy and powerful he says
(15:39):
that you know it, actually youdo the hardest thing in the day
first.
So it is forcing him to dosomething hard, because when
you're not sort of in the streettrying to like living on the
street or when you're not sortof busting it trying to make a
living and all those things, andyou finally got to a place
where you're really comfortableand you're kind of on top of
your game, uh, it would be veryeasy to kind of relax into that
(15:59):
and just kind of indulge.
And instead of doing that hesays no, no, I do something hard
every day because it provesthat I can still do something
hard but also everything afterthat is easy because I've done
the hard thing.
So he actually part of hismorning ritual is doing
something that's hard, so thatafter that everything seems easy
(16:19):
.
So see sort of the mindsetbehind that.
So it says different ways wecan do a morning ritual that
might work differently fordifferent people.
We need different things.
So what he does that works forhim may not be what works for a
young mom or a post-menopausalwoman or whoever right, there's
different reasons why differentrituals work for us.
(16:42):
But the idea is to really haveintentionality behind it and
kind of understand what you'redoing and what you're doing it
for, and understand that youdon't necessarily need hours
right, because most people don'thave hours for all their
rituals in the morning.
You might have minutes, youmight have an hour, you might
have 20 minutes, you might havesix minutes, I don't know what
it is.
So work out what it is that'smost beneficial for you and do
(17:05):
that in that time.
And it might be doing one thing, might be doing two different
things, but don't sort of not doit because you don't have time,
because you can create.
Most people can create fiveminutes.
Most people can find fiveminutes somewhere.
They stop doing something else.
You know, if you weren't doingthe doom scrolling on your phone
, how much time do you spenddoom scrolling?
(17:26):
If you can have time to doomscroll, well then you can have
time to do.
You know a two minutemeditation, right?
So that's the other thing too.
It's like everyone's only gotthe same amount of hours in the
day.
So it's like, what do you dowith yours?
And it might be very minimal,absolutely, but there's still a
lot you can do in a small amountof time.
So, um, and when you do, I knowI always enjoyed reading a lot
(17:50):
of biographies andautobiographies and you know, as
someone who's been in businessfor a long time.
I've read a lot of businessbooks, and when you read
business books andautobiographies or anything
where people have becomesuccessful in whatever they do,
more often than not these peoplehave a lot of very specific
rituals, and they usually havemorning rituals, and this is the
exact reason why.
(18:11):
So you do the thing that youneed to do to keep you
functional, to keep you well, togive you energy throughout the
day.
You do the thing that startsyou with momentum.
You do the thing that startsyou in that right headspace.
So you're going into the dayreally intentionally and you
don't let something like a phoneor your emails or your social
media dictate how you feel tostart the day.
(18:34):
You're starting the day in a,you know, in a shock, or in a or
in a, you know, feeling alreadystressed and feeling already
behind or already like you'vegot to run around and do
everything for everybody else.
So there is very much somethingto be said for having a great
morning ritual and you candevise what that looks like for
(18:54):
you, depending on time, money,whatever your situation is,
whatever your needs are.
But you will find that when youregularly show up for yourself,
whether that's for two minutesa day or whether this is a
two-hour ritual every day,whatever that might look like
for you, it makes a really bigdifference to what your day
looks like, what your physicaland mental health looks like.
(19:17):
The fact that you start toreally trust yourself because
you know that you show up foryourself and you might find it
makes a difference with yourproductivity and all the other
things you do and your abilityto be present with other people.
Sometimes, to be present withother people and to be there for
other people and to hold aspace for other people.
We need to do something thatgives us space as well, and some
(19:41):
people have an evening ritual,and that can be great too, or
some people have one or theother, or they have both, and
the other thing I would just sayto you is to have a healthy
morning ritual.
One of the things I see a lot isI see and again, no judgment
for human beings, but I see alot of people that say, oh well,
you know like I'm busy all daywith the kids and with everybody
(20:03):
else and I get to a certaintime in the night and I want
time for myself, which is fairenough, and so you know I sit
down and start watching telly,but before I know it I'm, you
know I'm on binge watching thelatest, whatever it is, and I'm
you know four or five episodesin it's two in the morning.
I go to bed at two in themorning and then I wake up tired
.
You know, obviously that's nota good idea.
(20:24):
So, yes, I understand why youmight want to binge watch the
thing and I love that sort ofstuff just as much as the next
person, and sometimes thatreally is a medicine for me just
to go and disappear and bingewatch something.
Right, I understand that.
But I would just encourage youto again be intentional around
it.
So you might say I can watchone episode tonight and I'll
(20:47):
keep the other episode fortomorrow night.
Or, you know, it might be oneepisode a week that you get to
watch, or it might be you have acouple of hours on the weekend
where you get to binge watch alittle bit.
Whatever it is.
But you know, make life easierfor yourself by you know putting
sensible boundaries on thosesorts of things for you, Because
if it was your child sitting uptill two in the morning binge
(21:10):
watching something and you knewthey had to get up at six
o'clock in the morning to go towork.
You'd go to school, whatever itis.
Of course you would say to thatperson hey, that's not a good
idea, but we will do this, wewill do that for ourselves.
So also sort of think aboutwhat your evenings look like,
because what your evenings looklike will make a big difference
to your morning, won't they?
Because if your evenings looklike getting to bed really
(21:34):
really late because you've juststayed up watching telly all
night or playing games orwhatever it is, obviously that's
not a good thing.
So it is really useful to havean evening ritual as well.
And even if the evening ritualis just making sure that you
know on weekdays you're alwaysin bed by this time on weekends,
whatever that time, and youalways sort of have a quiet time
(21:54):
before bed, whatever it is.
But sometimes it's the reasonthat we're not having a
successful morning ritual isbecause our evening ritual is no
good or our evening is withoutritual.
The ritual is just on thelounge with the chocolate.
Yes, I know that some of yourecognize that, as do I.
When I said that, you thoughtoh, that's me, and it's
(22:19):
certainly me sometimes as well.
So just pointing out thatsometimes we are the ones that
sabotage ourselves, and when weare really intentional with what
we do with our time, we canfeel a whole lot better for it
and have a lot more physical andemotional health success for it
as well.
So, before I go, I would justplease like to remind you to
(22:42):
like, subscribe, share, commentand please rate and review this
podcast and please do share itwith your friends.
It is really, you know, Ireally want to keep this podcast
going and it is building slowlybut very slowly.
So please, please, please, ifthere's this one person now that
you can just quickly hit theshare button and share this with
(23:02):
your friend or on your Facebookor whatever it is, or just go
in and press the subscribebutton, something like that, all
of those things make adifference with how many people
get to see and hear this podcast.
So I really appreciate yoursupport.
I hope you have a great week.
I'll talk to you next weekabout more about things that you
(23:23):
know, real conversations aboutthings that matter.
Thank you, I'll talk to younext week.
Bye.
Popular Podcasts
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show. Clay Travis and Buck Sexton tackle the biggest stories in news, politics and current events with intelligence and humor. From the border crisis, to the madness of cancel culture and far-left missteps, Clay and Buck guide listeners through the latest headlines and hot topics with fun and entertaining conversations and opinions.